Iroquois: Influenced Federal Power
Today, students are often taught that American democracy has its roots in ancient Rome or Greece. But the American republic also took cues from the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Philosophers like John Locke, whose writings influenced the creation of the United States, wrote with amazement about how the Iroquois Confederacy vested power in people, not a monarch. Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin wrote letters to the Iroquois, seemingly calling out how people incorrectly viewed them as “ignorant savages,” and spent significant time learning about their federal-style government. Continue reading